Word.ws English Dictionary

stoop

/stuːp/US/stup/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

stoop noun: a stooping, bent position of the body.

stoop: a stooping, bent position of the body
Image: Percy Bell Hickling, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

stoop (plural stoops)

  1. A stooping, bent position of the body.
    • The old man walked with a stoop.
    • Theo Walcott's final pass has often drawn criticism but there could be no complaint in the 11th minute when his perfect delivery to the far post only required a stoop and a nod of the head from Young to put England ahead.2011, Phil McNulty, Euro 2012: Montenegro 2-2 England
    Synonyms:
    hunch
  2. An accelerated descent in flight, as that for an attack.
    • At length the hawk got the upper hand, and made a rushing stoop at her quarry1819, “Bracebridge Hall”, in Hawking, Washington Irving

Verb

stoop (third-person singular simple present stoops, present participle stooping, simple past and past participle stooped)

  1. To bend the upper part of the body forward and downward to a half-squatting position; crouch.
    • He stooped to tie his shoe-laces.
    • Their walk had continued not more than ten minutes when they crossed a creek by a wooden bridge and came to a row of mean houses standing flush with the street. At the door of one, an old black woman had stooped to lift a large basket, piled high with laundered clothes.1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC
  2. To lower oneself; to demean oneself in doing something below one's status, standards, or morals.
    • Can you believe that a salesman would stoop so low as to hide his customers' car keys until they agreed to the purchase?
  3. (intransitive) Of a bird of prey: to swoop down on its prey.
    • the holy eagle
      Stoop'd, as to foote vs: his Ascension is
      More sweet then our blest Fields1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
    • Presently the bird stooped and seized a salmon, and a violent struggle ensued.1882, [1875], Thomas Bewick, James Reiveley, William Harvey, The Parlour Menagerie, 4th edition, page 63
  4. (transitive) To cause to incline downward; to slant.
    • to stoop a cask of liquor
  5. (transitive) To cause to submit; to prostrate.
    • Many of those whose states so tempt thine ears / Are stoopt by death; and many left alive.1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615...
  6. To yield; to submit; to bend, as by compulsion; to assume a position of humility or subjection.
    • The grasse stoops not, she treads on it so light1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC
    • Mighty in her ships stood Carthage long, […] / Yet stooped to Rome, less wealthy, but more strong.1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number)
  7. To descend from rank or dignity; to condescend.
    • Where men of great wealth do stoop to husbandry, it multiplieth riches exceedingly.1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Riches”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC

Noun (2)

stoop (plural stoops)

  1. A vessel for holding liquids; like a flagon but without the spout.

Noun (3)

stoop (plural stoops)

  1. (Canada, New-Jersey, New-York, also, Connecticut) The staircase and landing or porch leading to the entrance of a residence.
    • Nearly all the houses were built with their gables to the streets and each had heavy wooden Dutch stoops, with seats, at its door.1856, James Fenimore Cooper, Satanstoe or The Littlepage Manuscripts: A Tale of the Colony, London, page 110
    • ...the entrance being at the side of the house and reached by a low front stoop with four or five risers...1905 Carpentry and Building, vol. 27 (January 1905), NY: David Williams Company, page 2
    Synonyms:
    porch, verandah
  2. (US) The threshold of a doorway; a doorstep.
    • A short flight of iron steps leads up to it and a storm door is built over the stoop, forming a little vestibule, and serving to keep out the gusts.1902, Gustav Kobbé, Signora: a child of the opera house, page 15
    • You better hurry up and get strong, if you going to carry me across the stoop.1975, Laurraine Goreau, Just Mahalia, Baby: The Mahalia Jackson Story, page 248
    Synonyms:
    step, doorstep

Noun (4)

stoop (plural stoops)

  1. (dialectal) A post or pillar, especially a gatepost or a support in a mine.

stoop meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

stoop in Hindi

to stoop, go down
झुकना jhuknā

stoop in Tamil

உடல் வளைவு, குனி தலை தாழ்த்து, குனிவு

stoop in Urdu

جھکنا, خم کرنا

stoop in Bengali

মাথা নোয়ানো, কুঁজো হয়ে থাকা
More languagesFewer languages
stoop in Telugu
స్టూప్
stoop in Malayalam
താഴ്‌മ, ഗൗരവത്യാഗം, റാഞ്ചൽ, വിധേയത്വം
stoop in Kannada
ಬಗ್ಗು, ತಗ್ಗು, ಬಗ್ಗಿಸು, ಬಗ್ಗಿನಿಲ್ಲು
stoop in Punjabi
ਸਟੂਪ
stoop in Gujarati
સ્ટૂપ

Examples of stoop in a sentence

  • Pedersen took a short corner and El-Hadji Diouf was given time to send in a cross for Mame Diouf to stoop and head home from close range.2010 December 28, Kevin Darlin, “West Brom 1 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC:
  • Theſe, theſe are Arts, my Prince, / In which your Zama does not ſtoop to Rome.1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene iv, page...
  • She levered him off the front stoop and into the bushes, then stood up on the tips of her toes to peer through the window in the door.2023 October 12, HarryBlank, “Fire in the Hole”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 22 May 2024:
  • Holding her breath while she set one foot over the stoop and followed it up into the house1997, Peter S. Feibleman, A place without twilight, page 15:

All 40 example sentences with stoop

Synonyms of stoop

All synonyms of stoop

Forms of stoop

Noun
pluralstoops
alternative formstoup
alternative formstowp
Verb
third-person singular presentstoops
present participlestooping
past participlestooped
paststooped

Past tense of stoop: stooped

Plural of stoop: stoops

Origin of stoop

From Middle English stoupen, from Old English stūpian (“to bow, bend”), from Proto-West Germanic *stūpōn, from Proto-Germanic *stūpōną, *stūpijaną (“to stand out”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewb- (“to push, butt, knock”). Compare steep. Cognate with Dutch stuipen (“to bend the upper part of the body forward and downward”), Old Norse stúpa (“to stoop”). Related also to Old Frisian stēpa (“to help”), Old Norse steypa (“to cause to stoop, cast down, overthrow”).

From Middle English stope, stoupe, from Old Norse staup (“dip, well, cup”), from Proto-Germanic *staupą, related to the verb *staupijaną (“to steep”). Related to Old English stēap (“drinking vessel, cup, flagon, stoop”).

Borrowed from Dutch stoep (“platform", "pavement”). Doublet of stoep. Cognate with step.

Words formed from stoop

Phrases with stoop

Words that rhyme with stoop

39 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about stoop

What does stoop mean?
Stoop means a stooping, bent position of the body.
What is stoop in Hindi?
Stoop in Hindi is झुकना (jhuknā). See Stoop meaning in Hindi.
How do you use stoop in a sentence?
Pedersen took a short corner and El-Hadji Diouf was given time to send in a cross for Mame Diouf to stoop and head home from close range.
What part of speech is stoop?
Stoop can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce stoop?
Stoop is pronounced /stuːp/ (UK).
What is the plural of stoop?
The plural of stoop is stoops.

Words near stoop in the dictionary

  1. stoom
  2. stoomed
  3. stooming
  4. stooms
  5. stooop
  6. stoop
  7. stoop and roop
  8. stoop ball
  9. stoop labor
  10. stoop work
  11. stoopball

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stoop (page history and authors); झुकना (Hindi) (page history and authors); stoop (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stoop (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stoop (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stoop (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stoop (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stoop (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stoop (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stoop (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-stoop.wav, En-NYC-stoop.ogg.

Cite this entry: “stoop.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stoop. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.